Communication

In order to use communication effectively so that it increases the harmony and balance in one's life, it’s important to understand communication. In the simplest of terms, communication is like a game of tennis.  That’s the easiest way to explain it but it gets a lot more complex unfortunately.

To start with one-on-one tennis, one player serves the ball and hits it over the net to the other player. That player must interpret the ball’s motions and decide where it is going and the best way to hit it back on the other side of the net. 

But that’s just too simple and in tennis they are aiming to make the other person ‘lose’ while in communication, you typically want the other person to understand instead of miss the content of your communication. But when it comes down to it, people often miss the point. Why does this happen?

Okay, back to one-on-one communication. One person is the sender and the other is the receiver. The communication is sent out by the sender whose intention is for the receiver to understand the communication in the way the sender meant for it to be understood.

However, the receiver bounces the communication off of their many filters. These filters are developed through the person’s past experiences and assumptions and beliefs about life. The problem comes into play when the sender and receiver’s filters aren’t the same. This causes misunderstanding and miscommunication.

Other interferences in communication are the noise and other distractions in the physical environment that make it difficult to understand what another person is communicating. This could be noise, kids running around, our brains scanning the environment for unsafe situations and threats. This takes attention away from the verbal communication.